go further outward (a fridea)

Yesterday, I got to attend a City of Dallas brainstorming session around the topic of Housing here in the city. It’s a fun part of what we try to do here at my church: connect, when our goals dovetail, with the efforts of our city. I know we’re not the only church who tries hard to bless the city, and hopefully this sort of approach is increasing within churches nationwide.

But if this is still a somewhat rare approach in churches, I’d imagine it’s all the rarer in college ministries. Very few collegiate ministries I’ve encountered have a stated goal of being an obvious “blessing to their campus,” in the sense that the administration and non-Christian students would appreciate their involvement. In fact, they’re probably more likely to aim to bless their city (or at least serve and impact there) than they are to bless their own campus.

So that’s this week’s Fridea, and you have a summer to put it into action: This school year, take steps forward in the “external focus” of your ministry. Not just in the evangelism, but in participating with your campus in a missional, beneficial, winsome sort of way. Your campus is your ministry’s neighborhood… and it’s a little scary how many college ministries are the equivalent of “that scary house on the corner where a lot of people seem to come and go but we really don’t know who lives there and they never say hi to their neighbors.”

Yikes!

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Welcome to Exploring College Ministry

After ministering to college students for 8 years, I've spent the last 6 years trying to help push our whole field forward. This meant, among other things, a yearlong road trip, an e-book (Reaching the Campus Tribes), exploring 250+ campuses, consulting, writing, speaking, and more. I love any opportunity to serve college ministers or others who want to reach college students better. To learn more, explore the header links or the tools below.

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1 comment

love this idea! what if college ministries served the other students on campus like they strive to serve the homeless, orphan, women in need, etc.? can’t wait to do college ministry again. I’ll give y’all a call later today!